Chapter 2: Choosing a Linux Distribution

As described in the previous chapter, we discovered that Linux was
a flavour of the UNIX family of operating systems. This chapter talks about what types of
Linux are available in the market today. These flavours are called distributions and
all have their own merits and disadvantages. We will cover the most popular distributions
in this chapter.

So, as you can see, whatever distribution you choose. You get Linux, whatever you buy, but you may
get a better range of options with distribution X over distribution Y. The choice is for you to decide,
and because of Linux's excellent Copying/Licensing properties, you can try it out before you commit to anything.
Of course, you don't have to buy Linux at all. You can take a copy from your friends, or from a magazine or book and
use it quite happily, but you usually get lots more goodies (extra cds, manuals, free support, etc) when you buy the
product. I purchased Red Hat Linux 7.0 for only 29.99 (pounds sterling), and it has a great deal more software with it
(5 CDs!) than the 1 CD publishers version costs.

Choosing a Linux distribution is a personal thing. It greatly depends on what you want to do with it all.
If you are a complete newbie and you are looking for an easy introduction to Linux, then I would probably choose
Mandrake Linux. Have a look at this rough guide to get an idea of which Linux
distribution is right for you.

Note: If a distribution is at release 7.0 (ie: Red Hat), but another distribution is only at 2.2 (ie: Debian), this does
not mean that Debian is an old version of Linux. The release numbers are only an indicator of how many releases
that particular vendor has made. It is quite likely that Debian 2.2 and Red Hat 7.0 share the same kernel version (2.2.16).